As users continue to rely on finding products and services on the Internet, the users must rely on the search tool to appropriately present pertinent search results. Unfortunately, Internet search tools have trouble making semantically meaningful distinctions among candidates in response to a search request, thereby often leaving the user with too many alternatives to explore. For example, a search on the Internet may return over 82,600 links in response to a search string “book locator”. This search string may be entered by a user to search for a service relating to locating a book for a customer. However, most of the candidates from the search are simply web pages containing the phrase. A few candidates are actually services for locating books as intended by the user. However, even some of these pertinent candidates may be undesirable choices for a given user for one reason or another (e.g., a delivery price is too high, an undesirable privacy policy, etc).
Thus, a need exists for a method and apparatus for selecting services in response to a search request that is based upon semantically meaningful criteria, e.g., based on compliance with formally specified properties.